Nadene Goldfoot
During Oregon's early days, mayors in Portland, Oregon only served a year at a time. In 1869, Bernard Goldsmith (b:November 20, 1832 – d:July 22, 1901),became the 19th mayor of Portland, Oregon, serving from 1869 to 1871, and was an immigrant Jew from Bavaria, who was sworn in as the mayor of Portland. Two years later, he was succeeded in office by his friend, countryman, and coreligionist,
Goldsmith had emigrated to New York City with his brother Solomon at the age of 15, working in the city as an apprentice to a watchmaker. Goldsmith subsequently came west, working for a time in California as a stevedore before starting his own jewelry store.
Goldsmith's jewelry store was a prosperous one and he began to expand his business empire, opening three stores in Northern California and Southern Oregon. He moved to Portland in 1861, where he opened a mercantile store together with some of his seven brothers. He also began to engage in speculative investments, playing the currency market, speculating on wheat and cattle, and making investments in Idaho mines.
In 1864, Goldsmith became one of the original directors of the Library Association of Portland, founded in that year. Goldsmith was also a backer of the Willamette River Navigation Company, as well as the Willamette Falls Locks and Canal Company, which was responsible for building the Willamette Falls Locks. He was one of twelve founding members of the elite Portland Stock and Exchange Board in 1865.
He was a Democrat before the Civil War, then shifted to the Republican party in opposition to slavery and in support of Abraham Lincoln, following the national pattern. He ran for mayor on the Union (Republican) ticket, then switched back to the Democratic party in 1875.
He was Portland's first Jewish mayor. He was part of a group of successful early Jews in Portland who exhibited a strong sense of public responsibility and appetite for public life, along with another of Portland's early mayors, Philip Wasserman.
His accomplishments include adding downtown park blocks and public squares to the city's domain, and in 1871, purchasing 40 wooded acres in the hills above downtown Portland, which would become the nucleus of what is now Washington Park. The $32,000 price drew considerable criticism. Goldsmith was the driving force behind the building of locks to navigate around the Willamette River falls across from Oregon City, which allowed boats to travel from the Pacific Ocean to Eugene, Oregon, cutting the cost of shipping Willamette Valley goods to Portland by half. Goldsmith and his associates obtained a $200,000 legislative grant from the state of Oregon for the project; when cost estimates more than doubled, Goldsmith paid an additional $200,000 out of his pocket.
These commercial ventures proved successful until by the time he was elected mayor in 1869, Goldsmith was the 8th richest resident of Portland and was regarded as the "most prosperous Jew in Oregon."
Several factors fostered the acceptance of Jews suggested by these political achievements. The timing and composition of Jewish migration was key. Jews first arrived in Oregon in 1849, just years after the first Overland immigrations brought resettlers to the region.
Bernard Goldsmith died on July 22, 1901. He was 68 years old
at the time of his death
Philip Wasserman, (b: December 1828 – d:February 26, 1895),20th mayor mayor after Goldsmith served from 1871 to 1873, a former state legislator who would later serve on the city’s school board. Jews comprised only about 0.5 percent of Oregon’s population in the late nineteenth century, yet Goldsmith's and Wasserman’s political achievements were hardly unusual. At least seven Jewish mayors served towns across the state, and others held statewide office, served in the legislature, and sat on city councils and school boards. Between 1877 and 1911, Philip Wasserman (December 1828 – February 26, 1895] was the mayor of Portland, Oregon, United States from 1871 to 1873. He was a pioneer banker and co-founder of the First National Bank.
Wasserman moved to Portland from San Francisco in 1858 and entered the tobacco and cigar business with his brother, Herman. He was part of a group of successful early Jews in Portland who exhibited a strong sense of public responsibility and appetite for public life, along with his predecessor (and Portland's first Jewish mayor), Bernard Goldsmith.
He died of heart failure at his home in Portland on February 26, 1895.
Joseph Simon (1851-1935)
Joseph Simon, a German Jew, served on Portland’s city council, in the state senate, in the U.S. Senate, and as Portland’s 36th mayor from 1909 to 1911. Joseph Simon (February 7, 1851 – February 14, 1935) was a German-born politician and attorney in the U.S. state of Oregon. He was born in Bechtheim, Hesse, and his family immigrated to the United States when he was one year old, settling in Portland, Oregon. A Republican, Simon served on the city council before election to the Oregon State Senate. He was later elected to the United States Senate for one partial term, 1898 to 1903. He later served as mayor of Portland for one term, 1909 to 1911. He was also the first Jewish Republican senator.
Joseph Simon was born to David Simon (1819–1901) and Elise née Leopold (1829–1890). He immigrated to the United States in 1852 with his parents, and in 1857 the family settled in Portland, Oregon. In Portland, Simon attended the local Portland Public Schools before studying law. He read law at the Portland law firm owned by Joseph N. Dolph and John H. Mitchell, and passed the bar in 1872. After passing the bar he entered private legal practice at Mitchell and Dolph’s firm. In 1873, he formed a partnership with Dolph and Dolph's brother Cyrus.
Political career
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Neil Goldschmidt was born in Eugene, in Oregon's Willamette Valley, on June 16, 1940, into a Jewish family to Lester H. Goldschmidt and Annette Levin. Goldschmidt was elected to the Portland City Council in 1970 and then as 45th mayor of Portland in 1972, becoming the youngest mayor of any major American city from January 1973 – August 15, 1979. He promoted the revitalization of Downtown Portland and was influential on Portland-area transportation policy, particularly with the scrapping of the controversial Mount Hood Freeway and the establishment of the MAX Light Rail system. He was appointed U.S. Secretary of Transportation by President Jimmy Carter in 1979; in that capacity he worked to revive the ailing automobile industry and to deregulate several industries. He served until the end of Carter's presidency in 1981 and then served as a senior executive with Nike for several years.
He was elected the 33rd governor of Oregon in 1986, serving a single term. He faced significant challenges, particularly a rising anti-tax movement (leading to Measure 5 in 1990) and a doubling of the state's prison population. He worked across party lines to reduce regulation and to repair the state's infrastructure. His reforms to the State Accident Insurance Fund (SAIF), a state-chartered worker's compensation insurance company were heralded at the time, but drew strong criticism in later years.
Vera Katz, 49th mayor of Portland, Oregon and Jewish, b: August 3, 1933 in Dusseldorf, Germany, (a year older than me) was Vera Pistrak, daughter of Lazar and Raisa Pistrak, Menshevik Jews who fled Russia after 1917 when WWI ended. Hitler had become chancellor in 1933.
American Democratic politician in the state of Oregon. She was the first woman to serve as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives and was the 49th mayor of Portland, Oregon's most populous city. She grew up in New York City, moving to Portland in 1962, and was elected to the Oregon House in 1972. She served as mayor from 1993 to 2005.
Two months after Vera's birth, sensing danger again, the Pistraks left for France with her and her older sister, Zena. When the Nazis invaded France in 1940, the Pistraks hiked the Pyrenees to escape to Spain. From there, they arranged passage to New York City.
Katz arrived with her parents and sister when she was 7. She spoke Russian and French.
Vera Katz escaped the Nazis as a child, came to America on a Greek steamship speaking only French and Russian, then grew up to become Oregon’s first woman speaker of the house and Portland’s longest-serving woman mayor. She was 84 when she died.
The present mayor of Portland is our 53rd.
Portland has 641,162 population as of 2021.
Portland is home to more than 40,000 Jewish residents, and Jewish history in Oregon goes back to 1849.Oct 6, 2022
Resource:
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/jews-in-oregon/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mayors_of_Portland,_Oregon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Goldsmith
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Wasserman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Goldschmidt
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2017/12/vera_katz_as_jewish_immigrant.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Katz
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